World Water Day 2010

The United Nation’s (UN) World Water Day kicked off today with people around the world pitching in to raise awareness of our world’s most precious resource.

This year’s theme was “Clean Water for a Healthy World” and sees events taking place across the world from water walks in New Zealand to celebrity obstacle racing in Zambia.

The UN, who run the day, are also meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, and at the General Assembly in New York to discuss what can be done to improve the quality and quantity of water worldwide.

The United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said the world’s water resources are resilient but becoming increasingly vulnerable, and it is the poor who suffer the most.

Every human needs between 20 and 40 litres of clean water a day for the purposes of drinking and sanitation, with an extra ten litres required if bathing and kitchen needs are taken into consideration.

Today 1.1 billion people around the world still lack access to improved water supply and more than 2.6 billion people lack access to improved sanitation.

The first World Water Day was held in 1993 after a UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in 1992 decided an international day was required.